Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
About
The focus of Business Continuity Planning is to ensure your organisations critical services and processes can continue to run in the event of an adverse incident. The nature of such events can range from environmental disasters to technological failures and even cyber-attack.
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If you provide critical services to a client, then at some point, they are likely to be scrutinised as to their resilience. Checks are typically undertaken during the initial tender process and periodically once your contract has started.
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It's important to differentiate Business Continuity from Disaster Recovery. These two terms are often interchanged and confused. In a disaster recovery situation, we accept a service may not available whilst it is being restored. Business continuity attempts to ensure that services remain available whilst any incident is ongoing.
Our experienced team can help you with all aspects of both Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning.
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Suppliers who are subject to such scrutiny, are often asked to demonstrate they conform to ISO 22301 best practice. This internationally recognised standard details requirements to plan, establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and improve a business continuity management system.
Benefits
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Demonstrate your commitment to protecting critical services and assets, which in turn can enhance your reputation in the eyes of customers and peers.
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Reduce the complexity and effort needed to meet tender / supplier assurance compliance requirements.
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Accreditation could provide opportunities to pitch for business in industry sectors that require a level of recognised business continuity planning. For example, financial services and the public sector.
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Reduce business risk and the impact of adverse events by having well developed plans in place which are continually audited and improved.
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Improved capability to respond to incidents and business interruption.
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Embeds within your organisation a culture of continuous improvement and risk-based thinking.
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Provides your organisation with a better understanding of its processes, assets and risks.
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Gain a competitive edge by being able to demonstrate your services are resilient.
Our Services
Planning and implementation of ISO 22301 is often seen as complex and time consuming. To be effective, continuity planning must become embedded within your day to day operations and processes. It is this cultural and business change that is often underestimated.
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So how can we help?
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Initial assessment / Gap Analysis: Our consultants will work to evaluate your current business continuity plans and readiness vs the ISO 22301 standard. We can then create a pathway towards achieving certification.
Implementation - Our team can provide the tools and expertise needed to fast track your organisation onto a path towards greater resilience and ISO 22301 certification (should you wish it).
Working flexibly, in a consultative or implementation role, allows us to help organisations of varying size, expertise and resource.
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We can help with all stages of implementation following the Plan Do Check Act cycle, including:
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Establishing the context your organisation works within, interested parties and legal obligations.
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Setting the scope of your management system ensuring it protects all vital processes and assets.
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Setting business continuity objectives.
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Conducting business impact analysis and risk assessments.
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Creating an appropriate business continuity strategy.
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Implementation of mitigating controls – We can help with the selection and implementation of tools that will reduce the impact and likelihood of business continuity incidents.
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Devise incident response, continuity and communication plans.
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Help with testing and auditing of business continuity procedures.
Training - ISO 22301 is a standard that once embedded, organisations must live with day to day. We can provide the training and knowledge which will enable key staff to prepare, implement and sustain the management system in the long term